Tag: Cultural

On Friday 28th September, Blakehill hosted a coffee morning in the hall raising funds for the charity MacMillan. It started at 9am and visitors were greeted with scrumptious cakes supplied by children and staff. There were also the opportunities for a hand massage, face painting and jewellery cleaning. Other attractions to the event were the tombola with over 200 prizes as well as the ever popular raffle where there was the opportunity to win a £50 pound voucher for Jamie’s Italian, golf lessons, a Beaverbrooks’ silver necklace and many more prizes.

Thank you to everybody who donated, helped to run and came to our coffee morning to make it the success it was! We raised over £900!

On Thursday Reception visited Thornton Hall Farm. Feeling very excited, they got on the bus and set off to meet the farm animals. As soon as they had put their stuff away, they started petting the animals – they got meet llamas, alpacas, donkey, cows, sheep and pigs. The even saw a bull! Reception really enjoyed feeding the lambs! They also explored the farm on a tractor safari! What fun! Before they headed home, they tore around the adventure playground and finished the day they had ice cream.

This week, Year 1 took a visit to Skipton Castle as part of their topic on Knights and Castles. Once they had got there, they took a guided tour of the castle, looking in all of the different rooms and learning about castle life hundreds of years ago. As they entered the castle, they looked up and saw all of the remnants of different types of stone and tar that had been thrown at the enemy all those years ago. The children really enjoyed learning about the knights in the castle and all the different ways of protecting the castle back then. They also loved the fact that from the toilet it led straight down into the mud hole below!

In the afternoon, the children did some more exploring of the castle after their delicious lunch and sat and drew some fantastic pictures of the castle, that was in front of them. They drew different things around the castle and loved to put their own twist on them. They went through all the different rooms and learnt what they were used for in the olden days, and also found that the crumbling, stone walls were really interesting as you could imagine them being freshly built and lined with soldiers.

The children loved the trip and would definitely love to go again. Their favourite part was definitely the old flushing toilet!

Today, Year 3 had their class assembly that was all about a book that they have been reading and learning about in class. This book is called Little Babaji and they had been looking at it as part of world book week. The story is about a boy from India whose mum is called Mamaji and dad is called Papaji. He lives with his dad and his mum. One day his mum sewed him a dark, fiery red coat, a light green tropical green umbrella, purple shoes and bright sky looking blue trousers which his mum sold at a shop called Bazar.

One day, he went to the forest wearing these clothes and saw a tiger approaching him. Suddenly, the tiger shouted out “I am the greatest of them all.” So that he could leave safely, Little Babayi gave him his coat then the tiger raced into the misty forest and continued walking but encountered 3 more tigers who robed him of the rest of his new clothes. After telling their story, they sang Little Light of Mine and did two dances which were very well thought out.

This afternoon, 4J performed a brilliant assembly for the rest of Blakehill, all about World War II. They had been reading a book in their English lessons called Friend or Foe, which is all about two boys who are evacuated to Devon and find two German soldiers, that have crashed from their plane! Using this book, the children have managed to produce multiple pieces of fantastic work such as a diary entry of David (a character in the book), a setting description of the streets that had been bombed and destroyed by the Germans and decision wheels, thinking about what would happen next in the chapter and story.

In topic, the class listened to Neville Chamberlain’s declaration of the war and then wrote from a person who was listening’s point of view. This week, they have learnt a song called “When you’re a kid in World War II” which was very catchy and had a fun rhythm, and sung it to us as they danced around!

This topic was really fun to learn all about and year 4 enjoyed reading the book and looking into the past of the war!

Today, Year 2 did a fantastic assembly all about Bonfire Night and the Gunpowder Plot. Their aim was to make people remember not only the 5th of November but how everyone follows different religions and beliefs which it is important to understand. They explained that we should listen to everyone’s point of view and be kind to each other- if we do this we all live peacefully.

They exclaimed how people celebrate Bonfire night:

Bonfires,

Fireworks,

Bonfires with a model Guy Fawkes on top.

Guy Fawkes wanted England to be catholic again so he and a group of friends planned a plot of gunpowder in the Houses of Parliament to kill the King. Fortunately, he failed and got caught by the king’s guards. With his friends, he was sentenced to be hung and quartered.

Year 2 did a wonderful job and we definitely learnt the importance of listening to and accepting other people’s views.

On Wednesday Year 1 went to visit the Gurdwara, a Sikh place of worship. Before they could enter the temple they had to cover their heads with a scarf to show respect. Then they had to remove their shoes and they went to a girls cloakroom and a boys cloakroom. After that Mr Singh showed the children around, they went upstairs where they were introduced to the Guru Granth Sahib.The Guru Granth Sahib is the Sikh holy book. The book even has its own bedroom which it placed in everyday around 8:30 at night! Everyday the book is taken out of its resting place and Sikhs come to worship from it. whilst Year 1 were upstairs they were not allowed to talk because their was other people their worshipping. Next they went to have a go and look at some instruments played in the Gurdwara. They also had the chance to study some artefacts from the temple and talked about them. They really enjoyed the trip and can’t wait to write about it!

On Wednesday Year 1 went to visit the Gurdwara, a Sikh place of worship. Before they could enter the temple they had to cover their heads with a scarf to show respect. Then they had to remove their shoes and they went to a girls cloakroom and a boys cloakroom. After that Mr Singh showed the children around, they went upstairs where they were introduced to the Guru Granth Sahib.The Guru Granth Sahib is the Sikh holy book. The book even has its own bedroom which it placed in everyday around 8:30 at night! Everyday the book is taken out of its resting place and Sikhs come to worship from it. whilst Year 1 were upstairs they were not allowed to talk because their was other people their worshipping. Next they went to have a go and look at some instruments played in the Gurdwara. They also had the chance to study some artefacts from the temple and talked about them. They really enjoyed the trip and can’t wait to write about it!

This week KS1 had their amazing nativity called Lights Camel Action! It was based on a popular show called Strictly Come Dancing mixed with the Christmas Story. They had three judges: Donkey (Lucas), The Innkeepers wife ( Flo) and Caesar Augustus (Alex). There was also 3 narrators and host, who did an amazing job. It also included a lot of the characters from the Christmas story such as: the Three Wise Men and the Three Camels , the Angels, Mary and Joseph, the Innkeepers and finally the Shepherds and the sheep. They all had different styles of dancing and they were given a score by the fantastic judges after they completed their dance. They sang lots of songs and learnt lots of amazing dance moves taught to them by the teachers .

We are happy to hear some fantastic comments about the show from their parents. There were lots of happy faces in the audience. They all did an amazing job and they worked very hard. Well done KS1!

On Thursday, Year 6 went to St Cuthberts Church to learn why we celebrate Christmas. The service was called Rewind to Christmas. When we arrived at the church, we got sorted into groups. We did activities like filling up a booklet with games and a little bit of writing. We also watched a series of clips that included Wallace and Gromit and some sprouts singing a song. We were there with another school. We made a candle holder from a glass and stuck tissue paper on there with glue to keep it on and they looked very good and they will be receiving them soon. Year 6 really enjoyed it and they will be receiving them soon. We really enjoyed it and will look forward and going back next week for their Christingle Service.